1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an endoscope apparatus including an apparatus main body to which an endoscope is connected in a freely attachable and detachable manner.
2. Description of the Related Art
As is well known, endoscope apparatuses have been widely used in medical fields and industrial fields. An endoscope apparatus used in a medical field is capable of observing an organ in a body cavity by inserting a thin and long insertion portion of the endoscope into the body cavity, and further performing various medical treatment by using a treatment tool inserted into an insertion channel for the treatment tool, as required.
Further, an endoscope apparatus used in an industrial field is capable of performing observation of damage, corrosion, and the like, in parts to be inspected, or performing various treatment by inserting a thin and long insertion portion of the endoscope into the inside of a jet engine, a pipe in a plant and the like.
An industrial endoscope apparatus is generally configured, for example, of an endoscope which has, at the distal end portion thereof, a thin and long insertion portion provided with an image pickup unit having an image pickup lens and an image pickup device such as a CCD, and an apparatus main body to which the endoscope is connected. Note that there is also known a small endoscope apparatus in which a light source, such as an LED, is provided at the distal end of an insertion portion.
Further, in the apparatus main body, there are provided various members for driving the endoscope, such as specifically, an electric circuit which drives the image pickup unit and the light source, an image processing unit which performs processing of an picked up image signal outputted from the image pickup unit, a recording medium which records image data processed by the image processing unit, and a battery which supplies electric power to the endoscope and the apparatus main body.
As the above described industrial endoscope apparatus, for example, there is described, in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open Publication No. 2004-81797, an endoscope apparatus having a monitor which is rotatably provided in the apparatus main body, and displays an endoscopic image picked up by the endoscope. In the endoscope apparatus as described in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open Publication No. 2004-81797, the monitor is fixed to a fixing screw provided with a hinge of the apparatus main body, so that the monitor can be adjusted to a predetermined tilting angle with respect to the apparatus main body. Further, there is disclosed, in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open Publication No. 2004-81797, a configuration in which the monitor can be adjusted to a predetermined tilting angle with respect to the apparatus main body by providing hinges at both side surface portions of the monitor.